Importance of Diversified Leadership Roles in Improving Team Effectiveness in a Virtual Collaboration Learning Environment

Virtual teams enabled by information and communications technologies (ICT) are increasingly being adopted not only by for-profit organizations but also by education institutions as well. This study investigates what contribute to the success of virtual learning teams in a higher-education institution. Specifically, we examine the issue of leadership in virtual learning teams. The study first reviews the current literature on teams, leadership, and trust then proposes a framework of team effectiveness of online learning teams. A field study is conducted to investigate the influence of several independent variables including diversified leadership roles, leadership effectiveness, team trust, and propensity to trust. It is found that diversified leadership roles influences both leadership effectiveness and team trust; both leadership effectiveness and propensity to trust influence team trust, and team trust in turn directly impacts team effectiveness. In addition, team trust mediates the relationship between leadership effectiveness and team effectiveness. Some practical implications of the results are discussed as well.